Main menu

Post navigation

Area 13.1 Recap (hint hint I PRed)

On November 8th I ran my first half marathon in a year. After running 4 halfs in 2013, I spent the first half of 2014 training for my first marathon. I knew after I finished that I had to make some changes and I wanted to PR a half marathon.

I started working with Jesica again and she really pushed me to step out of what I had been doing and really go for it. And as the training cycle progressed (and my weight continued to go down) my times were getting better and better. Paces that were hard to keep for a 5k became my long run paces. And all that hard work paid off last night.

I picked my goal race based off of a couple things: date, course (flat flat flat) and location. Originally Rock N Roll Vegas was going to be my goal race but when my childhood bestfriend chose the night before as her wedding date I knew that was out (I did however still run in Vegas, just flew in the day of the race). Then I found a race the weekend before Vegas, on the trail/road that I run on all the time about 2 min from my house. It seemed perfect (other than the 5:30 pm start time) and in reality it ended up being perfect.

The race I chose was the Area 13.1, there were definitely some pluses and minuses to this race. Packet pick up was super easy, I was able to grab it the Sunday before from my local Lululemon. The race was fairly small which made race day logistics much easier.

Since the race was at 5:30 I had to sit around all day until it was time to run. My parents came to town with my grandmother to meet the newest member of the family. So luckily my parents were able to spectate and be there for the race. My morning started kind of strangely, I had to eat chicken and rice for breakfast. My nutrition plan for the day was to eat my typical dinner the night before a race for breakfast, so a chicken breast and 2 cups of white rice was breakfast. After that I was on a bagel and hard boiled egg diet until after the race. I ended up eating two bagels and two hard boiled eggs. I ended up with a fun sinus headache but I don’t like how I run when on my migraine medicine so decided to not take anything.

I got to the race later than I anticipated so I didn’t get in my full warm up, but did a couple minutes of jogging and did dynamic stretches until the start. I also took a salted watermelon GU about 30 min before the race.

My head was still hurting pretty good at this point and I was hoping adrenaline would kick in and make it go away. There were no corrals so I lined up towards the middle and was surprised at how many people had on long sleeves and long pants. The weather was perfect high 50s that would drop to the high 40s by the end, which for me that means a tank top and shorts.

Right after the start
The first mile was on the road and I was trying to keep myself from going out too fast, I let people pass me because I knew if I went out to hard I would crash. The first 4 miles were pretty congested, around 1.5 you go into a narrower trail into the woods and people were walking and blocking the trail. This was my slowest mile, but after we got out of there around mile 3 I started to pick the pace back up. It was still crowded and the course was really weirdly planned out. There were a lot of random out and backs. The one around mile 3 was really confusing and kind of a mess but not nearly as bad as mile 4 back in Riverside park. They did a bad job directing runners but my parents were at this split and pointed me in the right direction.

By this point I really wanted Gatorade, they said there would be Gatorade at 4 and 7.5 but there was nothing at 4. I waited til 5 to take my gu in case Gatorade magically appeared but it didn’t. At this point I realized I was moving pretty quickly, a lot of my miles were in the high 10s, but I felt really good. My head had stopped hurting and I was just cruising. It was pitch black and I was really happy to have worn my headlamp. Around mile 5.5 the lead guy came running past (and then by me again quickly after that) and he was moving! Between 6 and 7 we hit the two “hills” of the course but they’re not too bad and I’ve run them a bunch in training runs.

I found the elusive Gatorade at mile 7.25 and was glad I did, I was starting to feel a little off and the Gatorade made me feel better within a couple minutes. Again I was cruising and was starting to really pass people. I’m usually getting passed so it was nice to be the person doing the passing. The next few miles felt the longest but my body felt good and I just kept moving. Around mile 10 I realized that I could come in around 2:25 (my garmin was short by 1/4 mile but I didn’t realize it when I was calculating) and I wanted to keep that up. I took another GU here and then kicked it up a notch. I made the final turn around and new I was about 1.9 miles from the finish. Since I run this course often I know the mileages and realized my garmin was off at mile 12. And then I did more math and realized I could beat my mom’s PR if I kept it up. I got a pretty bad shin splint but there was no way I was stopping.

Before the race I had never run longer than 12.4 without stopping, not even during marathon training. I wanted to get over that hump, even if I was running 15 min miles, I was going to keep running. Luckily I ran some faster miles and was cruising to the finish. I got a little caught up on a boardwalk piece of the trail behind a woman who was not happy when I yelled on your left and ran by her. She did the same to me about .1 from the finish but then I sprinted past her because I wasn’t going to let her finish ahead of me. I crossed the finish line at 2:20:13!! Over 25 min PR and over a minute faster than my mom’s PR.

After the race

I never really thought this time was possible. 2:30 was my goal, but I thought 2:27ish was possible. I felt great most of this race and didn’t really have any bad miles. Mentally I was much better off than I usually am. I never hit a mental wall like I have in every other race.

I just couldn’t be happier with my performance. I worked really hard to get to this point and I’m really proud of myself for accomplishing multiple goals during this training cycle.

Hopefully my vegas recap isn’t too far off since I just finished that race this past Sunday.